Literature - Romeo and Juliet

This one of three culminating assignments for Romeo and Juliet  (the other two are a scene performance and an analytical essay).  I include it because it gives students whose gifts may not be in performance a chance to express their responses to the text creatively.  The guidelines are pretty specific.  Students must incorporate plenty of the text into the project.  Even their artistic elements must reflect a clear connection to the text.  The scrapbook contains

In this lesson students will evaluate the types of love that are present in the play and "diagnose" the characters. Essential Question: What is true love?
Enduring Understandings: Love is irrational - passion colors perception Language evolves over time, but human nature does not
Overall Lesson Objectives: Analyze the different types of love
Discuss how Romeo and Juliet view love

This series of assignments/activities involves having students prepare for and conduct a mock trial for 12 citizens of Verona following the conclusion of Romeo and Juliet.  Students create "alibi timelines," "character affidavits," and "pie charts of guilt," using the play's text to gauge a character's involvement in six deaths that took place in Verona.  Students pair off into lawyers and witnesses, and after fulfilling their trial responsibilities, each person writes a self-reflection of what he/she learned during the unit.

There are two parts to this group work - the first part has students look at two different versions of Romeo and Juliet.  The first version being Shakespeare, and the second version the modern paraphrased version known as Shakespeare Made Easy.  It asks the students to keep an open and critical mind in comparing the two.  The first part of handouts also contains reviews from Amazon.com of the original Shakespeare and the paraphrased version - and asks to students to consider these.  The second part of the excercise requires that students answer questions about what happens when the words of Shakespeare are changed -- what happens to the meaning, to the connotation. 

Like all good ideas that I have, this is stolen from Peggy O'Brien and Company from The Folger Shakespeare Library.  The concept is simple and the effect is always quite a lot of fun.  Use the handout to divide students into 6 groups - they will be given 5-10 minutes to act out, to explicate, to have fun with the line that you will give them (again see the handout).  For instance, one group will act out "You kiss by the book."  Tell me that doesn't sound like fun.  Once they are all ready,  the teacher narrorates the story - pausing at just the right moment for the students to act out their part.  I always tell my students that when group 1 is on - group 2 should be standing and ready (and so on).

I introduce my Romeo and Juliet unit by briefly introducing the history of the Globe Theatre, then teach the sonnet, tragedy vs. comedy, and then the film before I ever have them open the play. I show the first 2/3 of the film (I stop at the "morning after" scene when Romeo is about to leave Juliet's bedroom). My intent here is to introduce my students to the language, the plot, the characters, the clothing and behavior of the times before they enter into the play. I have used this methodology for the past 4 years and it works beautfully as it is the first time my students really are exposed to Shakespeare in any depth. I use the attached film study guide as the students are viewing the movie. Though it is not specifically in chronological order of the movie, it is divided into sectors - The Beginning, The Actors,Scene Analysis, etc.